Sophisticated automotive controllers are commercially available that process vehicle operator controlled input information into control signals issued to various automotive control actuators. The input information and the issued control signals provide valuable information describing vehicle operator behavior and the vehicle response to such behavior. It therefore would be desirable to retain such information, for example through controller interaction with on-board data storage devices.
The cost of such storage devices and the voluminous information processed by the controller limit the amount of such information that can retained. Most of the processed information is of liitle or no value and can be discarded. However, under certain driving conditions or preceding certain events the information may be valuable and it would therefore further be desirable to selectively retain processed input and control information at specific times during vehicle operation.